A Day
in the Life!
BY ALEXANDER MENRISKY
JUDITH COMPTON
Founder • Mala and Mantra
Carlsbad, California
hat’s it like to walk in
the shoes of Mala and
Mantra Founder Judith
Compton? For one, it’s a
juggle between running a jewelry business
and positively affecting lives through the
company’s fair trade partnership with
DGS, a Philippine-based social enterprise
livelihood program that helps local and
underprivileged Filipina artisans.
“The hardest part of being an entrepreneur—or a ‘soulpreneur,’ as I like to call
myself—is entrusting your passion project
to others and training staff to follow policies and procedures to ensure excellent
customer service,” Compton says.
“Keeping on top of every aspect of the
business to provide the highest-quality
product and an excellent customer service
experience can also be difficult, although
it’s of the utmost importance to me as a
business owner. “
She finds it most rewarding to know
that her staff members feel empowered
and care about the company, the fair trade
cooperative and the clients Mala and
Mantra serves. “Working with a positive
collective energy that thoughtfully works
together to spread our message of mindfulness to our customers is so inspiring
and energizing, as is knowing that even a
W
58 PULSE
n
June 2015
The life of a spa professional is a continuous cycle of daily
responsibilities that help make the spa world go round. Pulse
asks ISPA members to give us a sneak peek into their daily
lives to help us understand the roles they play and the
difference they make on a daily basis.
small company like ours is helping others
to have better lives.”
After her daily morning meditation,
yoga practice and breakfast with her
husband, Charles, and with their chocolate-colored Labrador Retriever named
Bear, Compton kicks off her work day.
H 9 am Prioritizes what needs to get
accomplished, delegates relevant projects
and reviews emails that arrived overnight
from Mala and Mantra’s fair trade partner.
“Sometimes, immediate responses are
required, which can be challenging with
the time difference between San Diego
and the Philippines, so I make sure to reply
to those emails first,” she says.
H 11 am Works with the customer
service team to ensure client orders are
fulfilled and shipped, and that any other
customer needs or requests are met. She
also reviews any issues that need to be
addressed overseas with the fair trade
cooperative.
H 2 pm With the help of the Mala and
Mantra team, Compton sends out orders
before the shipping deadline, prepares
comments for production orders and tests
each piece by hand to ensure it passes
quality control standards. “I’d analyze
inventory needs for upcoming production
runs, as well as start to prepare our purchase orders to make sure the cooperative
can analyze on the status of their raw
materials and advice on their production
turnaround time,” she says.
H 4 pm Staff members go into production
mode to finish assembling packages of
Mala and Mantra pieces scheduled for
shipment. Compton also reviews the status
of product development for new items and
starts preparing the agenda for her call
with the fair trade managing director.
H 6 pm Discusses and reviews issues
with the fair trade partner via Skype. After
the call, Compton reviews her notes and
prepares a follow-up task list. n
What day-to-day challenges do you often come across?
Daily Operations: “Managing more
than 300 stock keeping units (SKUs) to
make sure we have enough inventory to
fulfill orders is a challenge in and by
itself, as is guaranteeing that the inventory is being replenished by the
cooperative and that they have access to
the raw materials needed to create and
fulfill each of our orders,” Compton says.
Additionally, she also has to wade
through cultural issues as well as situations she has no control over but can
drastically impact business, such as U.S.
Custom delays and inspections, and even
natural disasters in the Philippines.
Staff Management: Compton says the
challenge is in finding the right staff
member who shares the vision of the
brand, is very detail-oriented, committed,
and available to work the hours needed.
“We use a lot of part-time staff, so scheduling can be a challenge,” she says, but
adds that flexibility is key to finding the
best workaround.
Budget: “Because we work with a fair
trade partner, it’s important that we pay
our artisan cooperative half of the
balance up-front when we place our production orders and the remainder when
they ship,” she says.